The Great Invitation |
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Isaiah 55:1-3
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Invitations are special. Rev. Bill Gorderer is the founder of Broad Street Ministry in Philadelphia. Broad Street in involved in many outreaches in the community. One of the biggest is an ongoing series of dinner parties open to the hungry, the homeless and the at-risk. He shares this story about the power of an invitation, “My son recently started a new school. If you remember what that was like, the most important thing you can do is to try to fit in. He was anxious—understandably—and trying to make a friend. That space between stranger and friend was collapsed by one child in particular. On the first week of school, he stuck a piece of paper in my son’s hand that basically invited him to his birthday party. My son came home a different child than when he left the house. He was changed because of the power of this invitation from a perfect stranger to him.” Invitations are special and what I want us to see in Isaiah 55:1–3 is that God is a very inviting God. The word “inviting” has two meanings, doesn’t it? You can say, “This spot is inviting.” And you mean that it is pleasant and attractive and that you feel drawn to come here. Or, you can say, “Tom is inviting us to come to his house on Thursday.” And you mean that something special is happening, and he says he wants us to come. The great and wonderful thing about God is that he is inviting in both these ways. No text in the Bible shows this more vividly than Isaiah 55:1–3. God comes forward with a Great Invitation not just for a few, and not just for those who can pay their way, but for everyone. Let’s look at Isaiah 55:1–3 and ask three questions:
Who Are Invited? The answer is, two kinds of people. The first kind is described in verse 1, “Come, all you who are
thirsty, The first kind of person that God invites to come to him is thirsty people who can’t pay for what they need. Two things: thirsty, and can’t pay. So, let me say a word to those of you in this category. You have come this morning with thirst in your heart. Your heart feels like the brown grass in my backyard. It hasn’t rained for a long time. A lot of old hopes have dried up. Dreams have waited and almost died. Dead-end streets again and again. Empty. Unfulfilled. Dissatisfied. Knowing there has to be something more to life. But now everything that looks good is out of reach. No money. No strength. No motivation. But at least a longing. A thirst. And the Lord says, You’re just the candidate I am after: Come, everyone who thirsts and has no money — no resources, no bargaining position, no track record, no power, no prestige, no pull. God is inviting you this morning to enjoy the banquet of salvation. But there is a second kind of person whom God invites. And I’m glad, because I think that the rest of you who don’t feel like you are in that category will fit into this one, if you are honest. This kind of person is described in verse 2. Why spend money on what is
not bread, In verse 1, God said, “He who has no money, come!” In verse 2, he talks to someone who has money, who has the strength to labor. The first kind of person is spiritually bankrupt and knows it. They are thirsty and broke. But the second kind of person isn’t there yet. He’s got money and he is spending it. He’s got strength and he is laboring. But what’s the result? Frustration. He’s not like the other guy — burnt out, at the end of his rope. He is still spending and still working, dreaming, chasing, searching, experimenting — different job, different city, different car, different house, different wife, new computer, new boat, new books, new bike, new grill, new season tickets, new diet, new looks — there’s still a lot of looking around left in this person. But still no pot at the end of the rainbow. No fountain of youth. And every victory peters out. The applause fades. The boat is boring. The style passes. Everything new gets old, and the options get fewer and fewer. When you are honest, you know there is need and longing on the inside, no matter how self-sufficient you look on the outside. And God knows even better than you. He has you in mind when he says, Why do you spend your money for bread which is no-bread, and labor for dreams that do not satisfy? So, two kinds of people are invited by the Lord: the thirsty who are broke and cannot pay, and the thirsty who think they can pay and work their way to satisfaction. I think everybody in this room would have to admit to being in one of those two groups, if we were honest with ourselves. What Are We Offered? The answer is given in three steps:
The benefits that are offered are seen in verse 1. We are offered water, wine, and milk. “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.” Don’t these three beverages correspond to deep needs that every one of us has? Water corresponds to the need for refreshment. When you are most thirsty and most desperate, most dehydrated, it’s water that you want, and nothing else. “He leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul.” (Psalm 23:2–3). God invites you to receive refreshment, restoration, reviving, a new beginning. Milk corresponds to the need for ongoing nourishment. When someone is gasping for life, you give them water. But when you want a little baby to grow day after day, you give it milk again and again. God is not just for emergencies. He is for health in the long haul. He invites you not only to come alive with water, but also to be stable and strong with milk. Wine corresponds to the need for exhilaration. We want to live and not die. We want to be strong and stable instead of weak and wavering. But that is not all we need in life. No matter how serious, calm and laid-back we may seem to others, there is a child inside of every one of us that God made for exhilaration — for shouting and singing and dancing and playing and skipping and running and jumping and laughing. So, what verse 1 says is that God is willing to revive us from the heat of Death Valley with the miracle of his water; and make us strong and healthy and stable with the miracle of his milk; and then give us endless and ever-fresh exhilaration with the miracle of his wine. The last part of verse 2 describes the quality and quantity of these benefits of water, milk, and wine. It says, “Listen,
listen to me, and eat what is good, The word “good” means that what God offers is top quality; it’s the best there is. And the word “richest of fare” (or “fatness”) means there is a lot of it (Psalm 65:11; 36:8). The water is good and it’s plentiful. The milk is good and it’s plentiful. The wine is good and it’s plentiful. The Bible loves to talk about the riches of God’s glory and the fullness of joy at his right hand. He gives what is best and it never runs out. Jesus said, “Whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:14). Then, in verse 3, God tells us what the reality is behind all this imagery. “Give
ear and come to me; In verse 1, he said, “Come to the waters . . . come, buy wine and milk.” In verse 3, he explains, “Come to me.” God is our living water. God is our nourishing milk. God is our exhilarating wine. “Whom
have I in heaven but you? But we can be even more specific. He goes on to say in verse 3 that when we come to him, he makes a covenant with us. What kind of covenant? The same kind of covenant that he made with King David in 2 Samuel 7 — an “everlasting covenant” of “faithful love.” This means that, when you come to God, he binds himself by an unbreakable oath to pursue you with goodness and mercy all your days right into eternity — with ever-refreshing water, and ever-strengthening milk, and ever-exhilarating wine, forever and ever! Which brings us to a final practical question. What Are We Told to Do to Get These Benefits? There are 12 imperatives in these 3 verses — the most pleasant, most inviting 12 commandments you will ever hear. I’ll point them out as we read it together. “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters [#1]; and you who have no money, come [#2], buy [#3] and eat [#4]! Come [#5], buy wine and milk [#6] without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me [#7], and eat what is good [#8], and you will delight in the richest of fare [#9]. Give ear [#10], and come to me [#11]; listen [#12], that you may live. When you ponder these 12 commandments for a moment, they fall into a natural pattern. First, there are three commands to listen carefully to what God is saying (one in verse 2 and two in verse 3). So, I urge you, as we close, take heed how you hear. Are you leaning into God’s word? God pleads this morning: don’t let the advertisements for the world drown out this invitation to heaven! Then all the rest of God’s bidding fall into four steps:
And this is what the Bible means by faith. Everybody in this room is somewhere in these four steps. And I call you to take another one this morning.
“You
make known to me the path of life; |
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